Muzaffarnagar: Farmer leader Mahendra
Singh Tikait, who spearheaded several movements for peasants`
rights in northern India, died on Sunday due to bone cancer.
Tikait (76), who was president of Bharatiya Kisan
Union, had been suffering from bone cancer since last year and
breathed his last at the residence of his son and BKU general
secretary Rakesh Tikait here, family sources said.
He is survived by four sons and two daughters. His
wife had died earlier.
A large number of people gathered here to pay tributes
to the farmer leader. The cremation would be held tomorrow at
BKU headquarters in Sisauli.
A popular leader among farmers, Tikait had led a
number of mass kisan movements against the state and Central
governments to support the rights of the farmers.
The BKU had in 1988 laid a virtual siege of Meerut in
pursuit of higher prices for sugarcane, cancellation of loans
and lowering of water and electricity rates. That same year he
had organised a week-long protest in Delhi`s Boat Club to
focus on the plight of farmers.
Tikait courted controversy in 2008 when he was
arrested and later released on bail for allegedly making
derogatory and caste based remarks against Chief Minister
Mayawati.
Tikait was arrested several times during his farmers`
agitations and the latest being in February 2000 in Moradabad
while on his way to hold a panchayat in Lucknow.
Born on in 1935 at Sisauli in this district, Tikait, a
Jat, inherited the leadership of Baliyan Khap at the age of 8.
PTI
